Introducing My Family!

After a 16 month hiatus, I have decided to return to the blogging world! And boy has a lot happened in the past 16 months. In my last post I shared that Andrés and I got engaged. 

Since then this happened...

And very shortly after this happened...

And then this little one came along!

I know! We were a little surprised too! And so, so happy. Contenta con la vida!

We are now a family of three.


Here's a short recap of what took place over the last 16 months:
I moved back home to MN at the beginning of March 2012 to be with my family, start wedding planning, and to work and save up money for said wedding. The Lord was so kind to provide a job almost right away. I was hired to wash motorhomes. Yes, you read right. It was a good job and I got some exercise and am very thankful for the two months I did that, but washing RVs is just not for me. In May I was able to find other work for the United States Postal Service! I worked as a mail processor in the St. Cloud plant and I really enjoyed my work and co-workers. I got a workout every night (helped me get in shape for the wedding) and my co-workers were so supportive and happy for me when I got married and pregnant. The only downside is that it was the night shift- ugh.

I got to spend as much family quality time as I could when I wasn't sleeping, and everybody chipped in to help the wedding come together. Andrés came up the week before the wedding and then on August 4, 2012 we became man and wife! It was an awesome wedding and reception but the details must be saved for a later post. At the end of August Andrés returned to Chile and I planned to follow him after a few more months of work. On Septembter 13th I found out I was pregnant and Andrés got to learn about it through Skype! Oh the joys. Through the help and support of my parents I was able to move down here at the end of October and join my husband. I found part-time work right away and for months 5-7 of my pregnancy I was blessed with full-time work and again, awesome co-workers. Then on May 2nd my mom arrived and just four short days later Amanda Rosario was born! What a whirlwind. Andrés is now studying and working and I am a stay at home mom for the next few months. It's a blessed life. It's a sleepless life.

Now since I'm a wife, mother, and indefinite expat I'm sure most of my posts will be focused on these new aspects of my life. I hope you enjoy reading about these adventures and I'm so happy to share them with my friends and family- it makes me feel closer to you all across this distance. Also, don't expect posts too frequently (I make no promises to keep up the blog) because I'm still getting the hang of mothering and Amanda is still learning about life on the outside of the womb- which means she's almost permanently in my arms! With that said, I hope to see you here again somewhat soon. God bless!

I Work Hard for the Money

I know I told you in the last post, but in this one I can fully rejoice with you- I have officially entered the Chilean working world!!! I have now taught four classes at the Navy and two clases particulares (tutoring). I´ll start with the Navy. I was first told that I would have 11 students, then it went down to 10 and yet only 7 show up every class. One of the three who had never come before finally came last class and after missing only three he´s still quite behind the others. The men are all older than me, I would say between 28 and 55 years-old and they are all officers. They´re all very polite and most are very eager to learn- I would say they are an excellent first class to have. I teach them three days a week for two hours at a time and earn about $10/hour of which 10% will be taken out for taxes. The only slight drawback is that it´s quite a commute. With the micro (bus), it takes me about an hour to get there and then an hour and a half to get home (it takes more time on the return due to rush hour traffic). So if you take that $20 for every class to cover the two hours of teaching, the two and a half hour commute and the hour of lesson planning, it´s not $10/hour anymore. But I´m still thanking the Lord and the institute because I´m very greatful for this work and for something to fill my time. And I´m also praying and hoping that the institute will have some openings for more classes come up.


Now about my clases particulares. These are tutoring sessions and very soon I´m going to start posting flyers and such in public to advertise my mad English skills. But I already have two people I´m tutoring. One is a precious little five-year-old girl named J. J is only in kindergarten but she loves what she´s learned so far of English so her parents want to encourage her in that. She really reminds me of my niece P who is just a year older and who I´ve been told has the same desire to learn Spanish. I´ve had one class with J so far which went well, and there´s just two things I need to remember for next time- don´t expect to cover too much and to add in some more fun activities. Little girls cannot sit still at a table for an hour! I also have started tutoring a man (also with the initial J) who is this girl´s uncle and wants to learn for business purposes. I think we made progress in our first class and I think it will be interesting in the future coming up with his class material. It´ll be a challenge, but a good one I think.


And this brings me to my work visa. Now that I´m working, I have to have a visa. And I got it today! I had to go to the Extranjeria (Foreigner´s Office) twice and had to wait about an hour in line, but it wasn´t that bad. Especially since the visa was FREE! I think when I went to Austria I had to pay a pretty penny for my student visa, so this was a nice surprise. It also feels like an accomplishment because I went to the Extranjeria all by myself! Well, Andrés actually dropped me off, but he didn´t come in with me (he had to go take a final) and I was able to communicate my needs without any help. Whoohoo. Now this does mean that I don´t know what all the paperwork I was given is for, but I do know that I have my work visa that is valid for four months and that is what is most important.

My work visa! (All important and personal information hidden of course)

The other paper they gave me- I´m not quite sure what it´s for. It says something about residency...

After receiving my visa, I decided I wanted to celebrate by going to Starbucks for the first time in Chile. I have to say that it was worth it, but that Starbucks will be a once every three of four month treat- it´s so expensive! I got a grande white mocha, which admitedly is one of the most expensive drinks on the menu, but I did it for my mom. Well not for her, but to remember her and reminisce because it´s her favorite drink. When we´re together we usually share one. So I leave you with photos from my first Starbucks adventure here, a little piece of home. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my work situation up until now. I REALLY appreciate it and feel free to keep those prayers coming.

Holy cow! 2750 pesos, that´s about $5.50!

Here´s my nonfat white mocha WITH whip cream :)

Here´s my cup with my name in all it´s glory! Many gringas have trouble with the baristas not understanding their names, but thankfully my name translates easily in Spanish- it´s the same!

What a Month!

It´s already October! And not just October 1st, but the 11th. Where has time gone? And why have I not blogged about it? I honestly thought when I got here that I would be writing posts all the time to keep my family and friends updated. It´s not that I´m so busy that I have no time to write, although there have been a few days like that, mostly it´s just that when I do have time I prefer to spend it with Andrés instead of on the computer. I seriously think I´m on the internet less than I´ve ever been in the past 8 years! So here´s an update on what´s been happening here in my corner of Chile in the past month- all the stuff I meant to blog about but never did. :)

• During the second week of September Andrés and I went to Santiago to finish getting my degree legalized. You can see how the process started here, and now I´m happy to say that it is all taken care of! I´ve heard about how long lines can be here, so I was planning on possibly having to wait a couple of hours to get a piece of paper stamped, but it took only TWO MINUTES! That´s 90 seconds of standing in line and 30 seconds to have a man stamp and sign my diploma. We had taken the bus to Santiago instead of driving- it saved us about $20 in gas money and it was a fun adventure. But that also meant that we had a lot of free time in Santiago now that the line was so short. We wandered Santiago Central for awhile, found lunch, rested in a plaza and then met up with two friends from college, Kathleen and Phil, for happy hour. It was so nice to see some familiar faces and talk about old times.
• A month ago today was September 11th. That day meant three things for me: the tenth  anniversary of 9/11, also the anniversary of the 1973 coup d´etat here in Chile, and the birthday of Andrés´ best friend Carol. It was a little weird to be here in Chile when it was the tenth anniversary of 9/11 because although I didn´t really hear anybody talking about it in person, it was all over the television. Multiple cable channels had specials on it. I made sure to say some prayers for the victims, families and my country. September 11th is also an infamous day in Chile for their own reason- the coup d´etat. Why do bad things seem to happen on this day? Usually there are riots on this day, but I didn´t hear about much and I definitely didn´t see anything, maybe because it was a Sunday. The really good thing about this day is that it was Carol´s birthday! We went over to her house and celebrated in a typical Chilean way with her friends and family and had a BBQ, drinks and cake.
• I think I briefly mentioned before a prayer request for the son of my host mother. When I came to Chile the first time, I stayed with a wonderful woman named Mónica. She took good care of me and when I arrived I was looking forward to spending lots of time with her. Unfortunately that hasn´t been able to happen yet because she has been at the hospital non-stop visiting her son, David. On August 3rd David had a series of six heart attacks due to a hereditary heart problem and has been in the ICU ever since. He is breathing on his own now, but I believe he is still in a coma and has little brain activity. Please, please, PLEASE pray for him and his family. That if it is God´s will, He will bring David back to his family, and for the family´s suffering. I have been able to visit twice and next time I´ll make sure to tell David of your prayers, thank you.
• Of course during the middle of September we celebrated Fiestas Patrias!
• I finished up my cuecas lessons and proved my cueca skills the first weekend of October. Just like I showed you Andrés´ dancing, I´ll try and post a video later of me. I was a little nervous so I wasn´t as good as I could have been, but I have to say that I did well for a foreigner! Also, I was very touched at how proud both Andrés and my profesor were of me. It made me feel very loved.
• I have gotten the itchies quite badly twice now. They come and I can´t stop scratching for a few days, then they slowly fade and come back a week or two later. And although we´re not positive, our best guess is that they are an allergy to the laundry detergent. So we´re going to try a new brand and see if that fixes it. Hopefully I´ll be getting some health insurance sometime soon and maybe be able to go to the doctor if they don´t stop.
• Also, during this time Andrés has returned to school! After over 100 days of striking, classes are back in action for him. I will write a longer post later, but the gist of things is that the strike is still going on, but so that the students don´t lose their school year classes are also taking place at the same time. Andrés had three weeks to finish up the two months he missed of the first semester. He is in finals right now and is studying like crazy- éxito mi Amor! This semester will end on Saturday (it should have finished in July) and then the second sememster (which would have started in the second week of August) will begin next week.
• Then over the past three weeks we have also been celebrating birthdays. First Andrés´ nephew J turned 6, then Andrés turned 27 and finally his other nephew S turned 8. We´ve been eating a lot of cake and pie. :)
• Finally, some really good personal news. I found work!!! On Thursday, September 27th I got a call from an institute asking if I could take on an English class. I went to an orientation meeting on the 28th and started Monday, October 3rd! It was a whirlwind but a big relief too. So I have one class I teach three days a week for a total of 6 hours each week. I´ll have it until mid-December. And guess who I´m teaching? The navy! I teach 7 naval officers and they are great- very polite and friendly and willing to learn. I hope that the institute will give me more classes and I am also doing some tutoring on the side. Also, this means that I should be getting my work visa very soon. Yay for not having to leave the country due to my tourist visa expiring!

And that is my update. Hope you are all doing great. Family and friends, I would love an update on your life too! 


Chau!

I´m Back!!!

I´m back in Chile and back with Andrés and back to blogging. I´m also very happy. Moving my stuff back to Minnesota was a little rough, but I immensely enjoyed my time with my family and had lots of fun- pictures will follow soon. The trip to Chile on Friday was long, but went by a lot faster with my new Nook(!) and now I´m with Andrés once again.

Time is already passing really fast and I plan to start blogging regularly again, but for right now just a tiny update. I got here at 6am on Saturday and one of my suitcases was missing but it arrived the next day and was delivered to my house. Andrés and I spent the day in Santiago and were planning on staying overnight to do some more exploring but the hotel didn´t work out... bummer. Sunday and Monday we pretty much spent putting my room together and resting. I went to Mass on Sunday and was glad to see my host mom, however her son is very sick so I´m sure they would appreciate your prayers. Tuesday I was going to start looking for work but I got sick late Monday night and ended up sleeping in instead. So today I started the job search! Oh my, it´s a little nerve wracking but I must have confidence that God will provide. I dropped off my resume at three English institutes- they all said they weren´t hiring right now but will keep my information for if/when something comes up. Tomorrow I go to Valparaíso to do it all over. Come on St. Joseph, provide a job for me! :) As for my Spanish, yesterday I started to speak only in Spanish. I really want to get a good handle on the language and have set a goal to be fluent within 3 months. Andrés and I were also going to go to one of the Education protests today, but by the time I was done handing out my resumes it was over. However, there was a march of what looked like high school aged kids that passed right by his house tonight. We were watching TV and he muted it and said "Listen, it´s a march." I didn´t believe him, I thought it was the TV in the next room. So he got up and showed me that protesters were walking down the street! It´s quite different to see how it works here. As for right now, I´m sitting in my new bed trying to stay warm because it´s much colder here than I thought it would be. Sometimes I can see my breath, it´s that cold in the house!

Once again, thanks for reading and thanks for your support. I´m happy to be back!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I'm realizing that in this time leading up to the move to MN on July 31st and to Chile on August 19th(!), I might not have as much time to blog as I thought I would. Things have been busy! So I thought I'd give you a little update on what's happening in my life.

• I just talked to my mom and she said that my notarized degree finally arrived, and that the Chilean consulate signed off on it! Yippee! It actually took my university about 7 weeks to do their part and the Chilean consulate only a few days to do theirs. Who would have thought?...
• We had Totus Tuus/Vacation Bible School at my parish this past week and after spending five straight days with 4-12 year-olds I am pooped! Those kids wore me out! I came home on Friday night, ate dinner and fell asleep at 7:30pm. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am officially a vieja (old lady). It was a great week and the kids had fun and learned lots, but I'm def looking forward to catching up on my rest.
• Speaking of work, the man taking over my position should arrive sometime this week! I'm looking forward to meeting him and his family. This also means that I should have a good amount of time to train him in- but not so much time to clean-up my office before he arrives!
• Cars hate me. My car broke down a few weeks ago, it got fixed and I drove it for a couple of weeks and now it broke down AGAIN! The first time it happened, a man from the parish kindly patched up the brake line and instead of me paying him cash we traded labor for labor and I fixed up some stuff around their house. This time, there is probably no repairing it (most likely something is seriously wrong with the tranny). So that same man and his wife let me borrow their car for the weekend so I could get to work at the golf course. I came out of work yesterday and the tire on their car was flat! Cars hate me. And it sucks for something to happen in somebody else's car. A spare was put on and all is fine, but I'm glad that I probably won't need a car for the next two weeks since I can walk to my job at the parish and...
• Today was my last day working at the golf course! I'm officially a one job woman! And in two weeks I'll be a no job woman. :( I look forward to the 3+ weeks of vacation but please pray that I find a job in Chile quickly.
• I visited one of the specialists that I had to see that I mentioned here and it all checked out-  everything is fine! :) The only thing is that it turned out to be a waste of time and money. The other specialist I have to see isn't that big of a deal (just a little painful), I'll be going to the dermatologist this week to have a number of moles removed (I'm a very mole-y person).
• It's starting to get very hard thinking about having to say goodbye to all the people here at the parish and in Wyoming. I'm going to miss them all so much! This has truly become my home and it feels way different leaving here than it did MN to go to college or college to come here. 
• With that said, only 33 days, 6 hours, 46 minutes and 19 seconds until I'm with Andres in Chile!!!

Show Me the Money!

I know in my last post that I said it wasn't all about the money. And life definitely is not, especially eternal life. Yet, money helps- fo shizzle. And a lot of my preparations for Chile are all about the money because I will need it to live there! 


On Saturday I had my first day back working at the golf course. When I took the job here in Wyoming I negotiated my salary so I would have just enough to live off of. Unfortunately I didn't plan my budget quite well enough because when my first student loan payment came due just three months later my monthly income fell about $100 short to cover all of my expenses. So I got a second job at Starbucks! It was really early mornings but free coffee and I mostly enjoyed it. It also covered the rest of my bills. Then I went to Chile for the first time for six weeks and they fired me (the first time I've ever been let go!). I guess you're only allowed to take extended absences for sick leave. They said they would hire me back when I returned to the states but my manager had started talking to me about the (in)flexibility of my schedule and I got the impression that unless something changed with my full-time schedule at the church, that Starbucks was no longer a viable option.


But God provided when I returned from Chile. The first weekend I was back a parishioner approached me and said her daughter was the manager at the snack shack at the golf course and she wanted to know if I knew of any teens who needed a job. Well I wasn't a teen but I was interested! I started in the snack shop the following weekend. By that time (due to a raise) I barely needed a second job to cover all my monthly expenses. But now I had a boyfriend in Chile who I wanted to see and this extra income helped me save for my first plane ticket to visit him (my generous father also provided some frequent flyer miles- thanks Pops!). I took the winter off- because of the snow on the ground- and then was back last summer and now I'm finally back this summer!


I was only scheduled for one day this weekend but I think from now on I'll be working every Saturday and Sunday. This is great because I really need the moolah for my move. It was quite windy this past Saturday and so we weren't as busy as we might normally be... but guess how much I made in tips? $40! That plus my base pay will all go into the Chile fund. Thank you Lord and thank you S. the golf course manager. Show me the money!

Holy Thursday

It's Holy Thursday. That means the three most important days of the year for my job have just begun. That is totally great and totally stressful at the same time. One of my main duties of being a parish catechist is running the RCIA process. RCIA stands for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and it's what people go through to become Catholic and be baptized (Side note: RCIA in Spanish is RICA- Rito de la Iniciacion de Cristianos Adultos- and I find it so funny because rica means "rich" but you can also call a person rica if you think she's hot, hehe). The highpoint of RCIA is the Easter Vigil the night before Easter because it's at that Mass that we bring in the Resurrection and these people get to receive the Sacraments for the first time. It is glorious! This is definitely my favorite aspect of my job- seeing these men and women who have such great faith and have been waiting for this so long to get to finally receive the Sacraments. 


The Easter Vigil is in two days. This Saturday. It'll be exciting and H.A.A. (holy and anointed) at the actual Mass which starts at 8pm that night. However, until then I will be busy making preparations and entering into Jesus' death on the cross. I have to say that I've been a little surprised (and not necessarily in a good way) because even though this is my third year doing this a lot of little and big last minute things have come up with RCIA that are STRESSING ME OUT! I still love it but seriously, I need to take a chill pill. Or rather all these things that keep popping up need to take a chill pill. Also, I keep thinking about how this will be my last time leading RCIA for quite awhile. I'm going to miss it and I don't even think they have it in Chile. I'm not sure what they do with adults who need Baptism. Hmm...


But what I'd really like to say in all of this is that I hope you have a blessed Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I pray that you may join Jesus in His death so that you can CELEBRATE the RESURRECTION with Him on Sunday! God bless.

What I Will and Will Not Miss About Sunday Mornings

Sundays are supposed to be for worship and rest... however, when you work for the Church, that doesn't always seem to be the case. Think about it, Sundays are probably the busiest days for priests and pastors and those who work for God. Sunday mornings are also usually very busy and often times stressful for me.


Take today for example. On Sunday mornings I have Religious Ed (CCD) for our K-5th graders, but today I also had to be at 11am Mass for the 2nd Rite of RCIA (the process adults go through to be baptized and become Catholic). So after losing an hour of sleep due to daylight savings, I'm rushing between the church and the parish center to get both events ready. Only, in the parish center there is a bird flying around! And then I also find out that one of my catechists is sick and won't be able to make it- but I can't take their class because I'll be at Mass! And then when I'm at the church, because everybody knows that I'm an employee, people are coming up to me and asking me questions that I just didn't have time to deal with. Stressful.


I will not miss the Sunday morning stress. And I won't miss having to work on Sundays. I look forward to getting to choose whatever Mass time I would like to attend and to taking the rest of the day to relax, spend time with family, nap and pray.


Yet, God is good and it all worked out. I eventually got the bird shooed out the door, a parent volunteered to watch a Veggietales video with the catechist-less class, and I kindly either had to help the parishioners or set my boundaries and let them know I didn't have time at the moment to answer their questions.


I will miss RE/CCD classes, I will miss all the kids, and I will miss the wonderful families and catechists. 


Even with all the stress though, I still had a good Sunday morning. I got to receive Christ in the Eucharist and I got to celebrate the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion with all the WONDERFUL people in RCIA. I love RCIA and all the people who go through it. Their faith always evangelizes me and inspires me to go deeper. It's amazing to get to be with them as they receive the Sacraments for the first time.


With all the different aspects I do as a parish catechist, I may miss RCIA most of all.